Content insurance

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides for the protection of and ability to upgrade to new formats of digital content by providing consumers of the digital content the capability of purchasing content insurance on digital content they consume. By purchasing insurance on content, at a later time consumers are able to return to the content distribution channels and re-obtain the previously purchased content in the same, or new format as the original purchased.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/759,163filed Jan. 16, 2001, pending.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates generally to the field of digital contentdistribution. More specifically, the present invention is related toprotecting and upgrading digital content in a digital contentdistribution system through the use of content insurance.

2. Background

As more and more content is created or made available in digital formand as the ways of distributing such content change, new challenges arearising in terms of preserving this content. The reliability of storagesystems such as hard disks or solid state memories is quite high, butdata loss is not uncommon. This may be due to hardware or softwarefailures, as well as human errors or intentional destruction, as is thecase for computer viruses.

This is a potential problem in data storage for personal use as well aswithin organizations; however, the latter are more likely to takemeasures to protect their data through backups. Nevertheless, largeamounts of data still remain unprotected in corporations and especiallyin small businesses. The percentage of data that has not been backed upis typically even higher in private computers or other consumerelectronic devices.

A shared characteristic of the various forms of content intended to bedistributed for commercial purposes is that the original costs ofproduction are several orders of magnitude more than production of eachindividual copy thereafter. Technological advances, from Gutenberg'spress to the World Wide Web, continue to widen that gap.

When consumers of that content buy a copy, be it a song, a motionpicture or a news article, an insignificant percentage of the purchaseprice goes to cover the marginal cost of distributing that copy. This iseven more clear on the Internet, where most, if not all, costs incurredby the distributor when content is downloaded, are fixed.

Content itself is not sold to consumers, but rather is implicitlylicensed to them. As an example, one of the most widespread implicitlicensing agreements for copyrighted material is that used in the salesof music records. Under the conditions of this agreement, the buyerpurchases limited rights to listen to the contents of a piece ofmedia—vinyl record, cassette tape, compact disc, or similartechnologies—for as long as this media is usable. Limited copies aregenerally also considered “fair use” as long as they meet certainrequirements.

Different types of media have different useful lives. For instance,analog cassette tapes contain magnetic materials that were polarized toencode an audio signal; the quality of this encoding would progressivelyfade with repeated playback, fast forward/rewind, heat and otherexternal factors. Typical useful life of a cassette tape was two yearsor 20 playbacks, whichever happened first, before quality was noticeablylower than when originally recorded.

Compact discs and related technologies like DVD use optical methods toread and write information, which is digitally encoded. These media aretherefore not subject to the progressive quality degradation describedabove, but if the surface gets too dirty or scratched then wholesections may be lost. CDs are also relatively fragile and do not standsignificant physical stress.

More recently, with the advent of cheaper magnetic heads and solid statestorage combined with advanced compression techniques, the use of“general purpose” computer storage has become an economically viablealternative for storage of content in digital form. In addition, withthe advent of these technological advances, the distribution of contenthas begun to move from traditional hard media to electronic distributionover communication networks such as the Internet.

With the interplay of decreased marginal cost of reproduction of contentin digital form and property rights of such content, a number of contentdistribution models have arisen. One such model is a direct contentdistribution model, illustrated in FIG. 1 a. In this model, a merchant100 receives digital content from the content owner 104 and the digitalcontent is stored at the merchant's site. The consumer 102 shops at themerchant's site and purchases content from merchant 100. Once thecontent is purchased from merchant 100, the content is downloaded frommerchant 100 to consumer 102.

A second content distribution model is depicted in FIG. 1 b. In thismodel, consumer 102 purchases content from a merchant 100. When consumer102 purchases content from merchant 100, merchant 100 informs clearinghouse 106 of this transaction. Clearing house 106 then generates avoucher for the purchase. This voucher is then presented to contentowner 104, allowing consumer 102 to download the content from owner 104.The voucher is presented to owner 104 either by clearing house 106 orconsumer 102.

Typically, in the distribution models, there is a concern aboutcontrolling the distribution of the content in order to protect theproperty rights of the content owners. Other technological advances,such as in cryptography and digital rights management systems, have alsoencouraged the electronic distribution of digital content. U.S. Pat.Nos. 5,933,498; 5,982,891; 5,673,316; and 6,119,108 generally illustratecontent distribution models incorporating these other technologicaladvances.

While economics and technological advances provide incentives forelectronic distribution of digital content, there are, however, stillproblems associated with this distribution which hamper the acceptanceof such distribution, both on the part of content owners and consumers.While top of the line storage systems are highly reliable, they arestill subject to hardware failure. Even more likely are other sources ofaccidental loss of data: operating system problems that could affect thefile system are not infrequent, viruses could destroy data stored ondisk and users may unknowingly delete files containing purchasedcontent.

In addition, there are other disincentives for consumers to acceptelectronic distribution of content. As technology surrounding encodingof this content continues to advance at a rapid rate, and as the cost ofdistributing the content via communication mediums such as the Internetis greatly reduced in comparison to hard media distribution of content,it is quite possible that owners and distributors of content will likelybe willing to change content formats at a much faster rate than is thecurrent practice. Moreover, due to the fast pace of technologicalchange, consumers may be concerned that the specific format that isoffered today will be superseded by a new one in a short lapse of time,and that old content will either be incompatible with new players orwill lack the quality of newer formats.

Most content commercially available, such as news and entertainmentcontent, has one common characteristic: it does not change over time. Asnoted, the media or encoding may change over time, e.g., from big screenformat to 8 mm to VHS to DVD, however, the actual content remainsconstant. If an individual copy of a classic is lost, becomes damaged,or there is not a player compatible with a particular format available,a new copy would be a perfect substitute for the old one, with thepossible exception of copies that are considered memorabilia. That is, anew copy of the content would perfectly replace the old content.

The present invention leverages the stability of this type of content byproviding an insurance policy that can be purchased alongside digitalcontent. Should an unexpected loss of data occur, the policyholder wouldbe entitled to a new copy of the same material. In another embodiment,the present invention has the additional advantage of guaranteeing toconsumers that new encodings of the same content they have alreadypurchased would be made available to them as technology evolves. Thesewould improve the adoption rate of digital distribution of content byreducing switching costs and the perceived risks, and, in addition,increase revenues to members of the distribution channel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides for the protection of and ability toupgrade to new formats of digital content by providing consumers thecapability of purchasing content insurance on digital content theyconsume. By purchasing insurance on content, at a later time consumersare able to return to the content distribution channels and re-obtainthe previously purchased content.

In a further embodiment, by purchasing insurance on content, at a latertime consumers are able to return to the content distribution channelsand obtain the previously purchased content in a new format.

In a further embodiment, a marginal price is charged to obtain thepreviously purchased content in a new format.

In further embodiments of the present invention, measures areimplemented to prevent fraudulent claims and generally discourage abusesof the system. These include restricting the number of claims that areable to be filed; requiring payment of a deductible; requiringdisclosure of private information to submit a claim; limitingavailability of content format upgrades; and limiting the term ofcontent format upgrade with an option to renew.

In the present invention, content insurance is distributed andmaintained via an insurer and an insurance agent. An insurer maintainsinsurance polices including a list of titles a consumer has purchasedcontent insurance on, verifies a consumer has purchased insurance on atitle, provides a mechanism for accessing digital content once a claimis processed or otherwise provides services to allow a consumer whopurchases insurance to process a claim. An insurance agent sells contentinsurance to consumers and accepts claims from consumers on behalf of aninsurer. A secure electronic receipt is generated for each purchase ofdigital content. These receipts bind the buyer to the goods, i.e., aparticular combination of bits, and can be redeemed at a later time inexchange for those same bits or an alternative representation of thesame content. The insurer and agent are separate entities, oralternatively, the same entity.

The present invention is adaptable to be provided in conjunction withthe purchase of digital content via a number of content distributionmodels, or distributed separately from the purchase of digital contentand content distribution models. A number of exemplary insurancedistribution embodiments are provided.

In a first embodiment, when a consumer purchases digital content from amerchant, the merchant offers to sell insurance on that content to theconsumer. When the consumer purchases the offered insurance, themerchant generates information which binds the consumer to that specificcopy of the content. The merchant then stores that information for eachconsumer. In the future when a new format arises, or the content islost, the consumer files a claim with the merchant, who verifies theirpurchase with the generated information. Once verified, the consumerthen retrieves a new copy of the digital content they had previouslypurchased.

In a second embodiment, a third party stores, maintains and verifiesinsurance information of a consumer, regardless of the merchant whichthe digital content was purchased from. When a consumer purchasescontent from a merchant, the completion of the transaction occursthrough the third party. When insurance is purchased on the content,identifying information of the content and consumer information isstored at the third party. At a later time when the consumer places aclaim, insurance information is retrieved from the third party and thethird party acts to verify that the content of the claim is covered inthe insurance the consumer has purchased.

In a third embodiment, the third party acts to verify that contentsubject to a claim is covered by the purchased insurance. When aconsumer purchases content from a merchant, the completion of thetransaction does not occur through the third party. Rather, securedinformation pertaining to the purchased insurance and content is storedby the consumer at the completion of the transaction. When the consumerpresents a claim, this information is transmitted to the third party,who verifies the validity of the information, i.e., verifies that thecontent subject to a claim is covered in purchased insurance.

In a fourth embodiment, content insurance is purchased at a timedisjoint from the purchase of the digital content. When a consumerpurchases content from a merchant secured information pertaining only tothe purchased content is stored by the consumer at the completion of thetransaction. At a later time, when the consumer wants to purchaseinsurance, the consumer goes to an entity offering insurance for saleand presents the secured information. Once verified, the consumer isallowed to purchase insurance on the verified content.

The present invention is beneficial to all parties involved in thedistribution of content for commercial purposes. Consumers would protecttheir property against loss for reasons beyond their control. Contentowners may see their sales increase as a result of lowering the risk forconsumers. Finally, distributors could provide this differentiatingvalue-added service with limited additional cost.

As some consumers may hesitate to purchase material for fear that theirinvestment will not last as long as they would expect in order to paythe price to acquire it, the present invention encourages them topurchase the material as it provides protection against this instance.Moreover, due to the fast pace of technological change, consumers may beconcerned that the specific format that is offered today will besuperseded by a new one in a short lapse of time, and that old contentwill either be incompatible with new players or will lack the quality ofnewer formats. The present invention reduces this risk for consumers.

While some percentage of current revenues for copyright owners derivesfrom replacement of lost copies, the present scheme provides incentiveswhich potentially increase current sales well beyond the present valueof future purchases due to accidental loss. Format upgrades are likelyto be more frequent in the digital world of downloadable content andplayers than in the physical distribution world.

Early adopters and audiophiles will want the latest format and will beable to upgrade frequently, generating incremental revenue; over aperiod of several years—the time it used to take to introduce a new,backwards incompatible technology—consumers will upgrade many times,thus approaching the revenue levels of previous technologies with longerlifecycles. Other users will have the flexibility of upgrading only whennew formats represent a significant advantage.

In the traditional model for sales of media, the rights to which theuser is entitled are usually rather inflexible. Its electroniccounterpart, namely digital content distribution, allows for a muchricher menu of licensing options. For example, some content may beavailable for free download, but with only a limited number of playbacksallowed. These rights are typically enforced by the DRMS. Therefore, theDRMS must determine what content is eligible for being insured, andinclude in the proof of user rights only those titles. In this exampleabove, the title with limited playback options may be deemed ineligible,as the counter is maintained locally and it may not be feasible to keepthe list of titles in the content insurance policy synchronized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1 a and 1 b illustrate two digital content distribution models.

FIGS. 2 a and 2 b illustrate an embodiment in which a merchant maintainsinsurance policy information.

FIGS. 3 a and 3 b, collectively, illustrate an embodiment in which athird party maintains and verifies insurance policy information

FIGS. 4 a and 4 b, collectively, illustrate an embodiment in which theconsumer maintains receipts and a third party verifies insurance policyinformation.

FIGS. 5 a and 5 b, collectively, illustrate an embodiment in whichinsurance is purchased at a time disjoint from the purchase of content.

FIGS. 6 a-6 d, collectively, illustrate an example purchase transactionof the second embodiment of the present invention which additionallyemploys the copyright protection scheme.

FIGS. 7 a-7 d, collectively, illustrate an example claim transaction ofthe second embodiment of the present invention which additionallyemploys the copyright protection scheme.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

While this invention is illustrated and described in a preferredembodiment, the device may be produced in many different configurationsand forms. There is depicted in the drawings, and will herein bedescribed in detail, a preferred embodiment of the invention, with theunderstanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as anexemplification of the principles of the invention and the associatedfunctional specifications for its construction and is not intended tolimit the invention to the embodiment illustrated. Those skilled in theart will envision many other possible variations within the scope of thepresent invention.

Generally, the present invention comprises selling content insurance ondigital content to consumers of the digital content, which isdistributed electronically, i.e., via communication networks such as theInternet, at a fraction of the cost of the digital content. The contentinsurance insures a consumer against the loss of the digital content forwhich the consumer has purchased insurance. Once a consumer haspurchased content insurance, if there is a loss the consumer may place aclaim for lost content and upon verification the consumer has actuallypurchased insurance on the lost content, the consumer is capable ofre-obtaining the same digital content.

In another embodiment, the content insurance insures the consumeragainst the advent of new digital formats, either in addition toinsuring against loss, or separate therefrom. In this embodiment, once apurchaser has purchased content insurance, the consumer may place aclaim for content for which there is a new digital format and uponverification the user has purchased insurance on such content, theconsumer is capable of obtaining the digital content in the new digitalformat. In a further embodiment, when content insurance covers theadvent of new digital formats, a marginal price is charged to theconsumer for an upgrade, generating additional revenues.

For digital content distributed electronically, the marginal cost ofdistributing such content is close to zero. Therefore, theredistribution of a copy to a consumer placing a claim is close to zero.As such, the revenue generated from the sale of insurance is notdefrayed by the cost of redistribution, making the revenue essentiallyall profit for distribution among the parties participating in thetransaction. In addition, the present invention reduces perceived andactual risks to consumers of digital content and therefore wouldincrease sales of digital content.

It should be noted, while it is envisioned that the price charged forcontent insurance and the marginal price for upgrades is a fraction ofthe cost of the digital content, the present invention should not beseen as limited to such. In a free market, the appropriate pricescharged for insurance and to upgrade would be dictated by the marketforces, and would typically be the market clearing prices for theinsurance and upgrade, respectively.

The embodiments of the present invention further comprise mechanismsthat prevent consumers from making fraudulent claims, or otherwiseabusing the content. The terms and conditions of the service includerestrictions on the number of claims that can be filed; require paymentof a deductible to discourage isolated, repetitive claims; requiredisclosing private information such as the insured party's credit cardnumber, thus discouraging users from making their policy widelyavailable; limit availability of content format upgrades or have alimited term with the option of renewal, possibly requiring anadditional fee. These characteristics make the system unattractive as ameans for illegal distribution of content while at the same time makingit convenient for legal users. In addition, the common characteristicacross all embodiments is that they are based on replacing the actualcontent instead of refunding consumers. This also limits abuse of thesystem.

The present invention is adaptable to be used in parallel to a number ofdifferent content distribution systems with various parties of thedistribution chain performing roles needed to implement the sale ofcontent insurance, or it is capable of being set up as a separatedistribution model itself without the parties of the contentdistribution chain performing functions related to selling insurance orprocessing claims. The following discussion presents exemplaryembodiments of the present invention adapted to content distributionschemes previously discussed and an exemplary embodiment for a separatecontent insurance distribution scheme.

In the following discussion several roles are identified: consumers (C)purchase content online; merchants (M) offer content for sale; contentowners (O) make their content available to merchants; insurers (I)provide the services described as content insurance. Some embodimentsinvolve the use of a clearing house (H), in addition, some embodimentsuse the concept of an insurance agent (A) who sells content insuranceand accepts insurance claims on behalf of the insurer. It should benoted that more than one role may be played by the same party. Forexample, a content owner may also be a merchant, or an insurer may alsobe an insurance agent. Similarly, a role may in fact involve more thantwo or more companies bound by contractual agreements.

The first embodiment is generally illustrated in FIG. 2 a. In thisembodiment, a merchant 200 also acts as the insurer and insurance agent.Content owner 204 provides content to merchant 200. Consumer 202purchases digital content and downloads the content from merchant 200.In this model, merchant 200 offers policy insurance to consumer 202 whenconsumer 202 purchases the content. As illustrated, consumer 202purchases the offered policy 3 from merchant 200. When consumer 202purchases the content with the optional insurance, the merchant/insurergenerates additional information binding the buyer to that specific copyof the content. The merchant then stores that information for eachconsumer.

As illustrated in FIG. 2 b, at a later date, consumer 202 contactsmerchant/insurer 200 and files a claim 4 for a new download of the samematerial, either in identical or different format. The merchant/insurer200 verifies the identity of consumer 202 and the information generatedand stored during the original transaction. If all the controls checkout, consumer 202 is authorized to download the new copy 5. A record ofthis transaction is kept and taken into consideration if or when thesame consumer files subsequent claims.

Alternatively, rather than downloading content from merchant 200 asillustrated, consumer 202 downloads content directly from content owner204.

Some limitations of the first embodiment just described is that asconsumers shop at different merchants/insurers, they would need tocreate new policies with each merchant as each merchant independentlyacts as an insurer. Should accidental loss of data occur, it is likelyto affect content that was originally purchased at different sites andtherefore multiple claims would need to be filed. Moreover, consumersmay forget at which store the content was originally purchased. Asimilar problem would arise if the content owners performed the role ofinsurance companies. Since individual titles are of limited value(although the aggregation of many titles may amount to a significantfigure), this distribution model may not generate enough interest byconsumers due to the unwieldy claim process.

A second embodiment, which improves upon the first embodiment byaddressing its limitations, is illustrated in FIGS. 3 a and 3 b. Ratherthan have each merchant act as an insurer, this role is decoupled fromthe merchant and a third party acts as the insurer. This brokeraggregates, in one policy, content purchased at different merchants.Diverse items are insured under one policy irrespective of where theywere purchased from. A single claim is filed to recover lost data orupgrade the content to a newer format.

Generally, in this embodiment, merchants 300 are considered insuranceagents, selling the services of the insurer for a share of revenue.Acting as agents, merchants 300 also provide the front end to the claimprocess. In this model, when consumers (C) 302 purchase content frommerchants (M) 300, consumer 302 is additionally given the option ofpurchasing insurance on the digital content that is purchased. Whenconsumers 302 purchases the policy 14 through merchant 300, this policyis maintained and provided by insurer 306. In this manner, the consumerneed not remember what merchant they purchased the content and insurancefrom, as the policy is maintained at clearing house 306. Insurer 306then acts to verify the validity of any claims later filed by consumer302.

A clearing house, as used in the prior art electronic distributionmodel, is involved in the secure distribution of content and is uniquelypositioned to provide the content insurance service. All transactions,irrespective of who a merchant or content owner are, go through thisclearing house, and therefore the original purchase can be verified.Moreover, a clearing house may have access to additional informationabout the consumer or his/her equipment that can be used to furtherlimit fraud. This party has direct or indirect access to the content,and can therefore replace lost items or upgrade formats easily. As such,in a preferred embodiment, a clearing house acts as the third partyinsurer 306.

In some cases, multiple clearing houses may exist. Each clearing housemay handle content by specific content owners, perhaps in an exclusivearrangement. Merchants may operate with one or more clearing houses. Insuch a scenario, insurer 306 maintains the consumer's policy informationand operates with multiple clearing houses to collect informationrelevant to such policy. Similarly, upon a claim, the insurer selectsone clearing house (e.g. the policy may include information about whichcontent was handled by which clearing house) to issue a voucher. Theexchange of information between clearing houses and insurer is protectedthrough mechanisms similar to those used in securing communicationbetween merchants and clearing houses, namely digital signatures.

While merchants 300 provide the front end to the consumers, clearinghouse 306 controls the actual fulfillment of orders (i.e., contentdownload) and maintains the insurance policies. It should be noted thatthe clearing house (H) and the content repository (O) are illustrated astwo independent entities (parties) and thus rights management and actualdownload are performed as two steps. However, in alternate embodimentsthese roles are performed by a single party.

Consumer (C) 302 purchases 10 content at merchant's site (M) and isgiven the option of acquiring content insurance. If the user does notelect the insurance, the transaction is simply forwarded 14 to clearinghouse (H) 306. However, when consumer 302 elects to buy the insurance 14and the transaction is forwarded 15 to the clearing house (H), a flag isused to indicate that content insurance has been purchased. The list oftitles just acquired is added to a consumer's existing policy or a newaccount is created for first time customers. In either case, a voucher12 is created indicating the purchase of the content 12 and consumer 202downloads 13 the purchased content.

Consumers 302 who register are not required to save any record of thistransaction. If they need to file a claim 16 for loss of data or toupgrade their format, all they need to do is go to one of theparticipating insurance agents (merchants) 300 and identify themselves(most likely by providing a user i.d. or account number and a password;usual techniques for dealing with “forgotten” passwords are applied.)The insurance agent accesses the policy information stored at theclearing house/insurer and presents this data to the consumer. It shouldbe noted that this data is not restricted to titles purchased from themerchant acting as the insurance agent for the claim; in fact, thiscould be an independent party that does not participate in sales ofcontent.

Consumer 302 then selects from the titles protected under the existingpolicy that he or she wishes to restore or upgrade. This triggers atransaction 17 very similar to the one used for the purchase of newcontent, except that it flags this as a restore/upgrade.

Clearing house 306 verifies that the titles selected are indeed coveredunder the policy for this consumer. Other checks, possibly related tothe underlying copyright protection mechanism (explained below), may beperformed at this point. If the transaction is approved, a voucher iscreated 18 and transmitted to content owner 304 which permits consumer302 to download 19 the digital content in the same, or new format.

It should also be noted that, in the above embodiment, information mustpass between merchant, insurer and content owner (as indicated by dashedlines) at the time of purchase. While illustrated in a manner that wouldnormally indicate that this information is transmitted directly betweenthese parties, this is not to be seen as a limiting factor. As will bedescribed hereinbelow, this information is also capable of beingtransmitted indirectly between these parties through the use of clientsoftware.

The above clearing house embodiment is easy to implement with onlyincremental effort relative to the purchase and distribution of theactual content because the clearing house already processes alltransactions in prior art systems. However, there are instances when itwould be preferable to use a third party insurer that is not theclearing house that aggregates, in one policy, content purchased atdifferent merchants. In order to provide for this embodiment, aninsurance purchasing and processing system is provided that does notrequire any communication between merchants and the insurer at the timeof purchasing content insurance which provides the additionalflexibility.

In this embodiment, illustrated in FIGS. 4 a and 4 b, merchant 400 againplays the role of insurance agent. Insurer 406 is a third party thatdoes not necessarily take part in the purchase, rights management anddownload of content.

Insurance agents 400, who have a contractual agreement with the insurer406, have public/private encryption key pair. When a transaction for thepurchase of content and corresponding insurance takes place 20, anelectronic receipt 21 including the details of the transaction isgenerated and digitally signed (using the agent's private key) 21.Consumers 402 are responsible for maintaining a copy of this electronicreceipt in order to be able to file a claim for the content covered byit.

When a claim or upgrade request is filed 22, with any insurance agent,consumer 402 submits all digitally signed electronic receipts as proofthat the original transaction effectively took place. The signatures areverified 23 before the claim is accepted, and an electronic voucher isgenerated, signed by insurer 406, and transmitted 24 to consumer 402.

This voucher is redeemed 25 at participating merchants or contentrepositories in order to download 26 the content. In this embodiment,rather than maintaining the policies, the insurer simply verifies thereceipt presented while the merchant still provides the front end forinsurance purchasing and claims. In this manner flexibility is providedin the distribution of insurance.

It should be noted that a flow of funds between insurance agents (whocollect fees) the insurer/clearing house and the content owners takesplace in the above embodiments, generally, as part of an out-of-bandprotocol, however, this does not constitute part of the presentinvention and has not been described herein for clarity. Any method ofcollecting or distributing monies can be utilized without departing fromthe scope of the present invention.

The above embodiments couple the purchase of insurance with the purchaseof the digital content. As such, merchants act as insurance agents. Theembodiment described in relation to and illustrated in FIGS. 5 a and 5 bis one in which consumer 502 is able to purchase insurance on his or herdigital content at a time after the actual purchase of the digitalcontent. In this embodiment, consumer 502 goes to insurer 500, which canbe separate from merchants, content owners or clearing houses, topurchase insurance policies on the content which the consumer owns. Itshould be noted that while this embodiment provides certain advantagesby allowing the purchase of insurance separate from the purchase of thecontent, it does so at the expense of requiring a more complex procedurefor adding titles to a policy in order to minimize risk of fraud.

When purchasing insurance 31, in order to open a new account or addtitles to an existing policy, consumer 502 contacts an insurance agent,which in the present discussion is the insurer itself and presents alist of titles that he/she claims ownership to. Before the insurer canaccept these titles and issue insurance on them, it must verify 30 thatthe user is in fact legally entitled to them. In order to be able to dothis, a copyright protection scheme (described below) supports beingqueried for available legal content. Moreover, because the insurer musttrust the copyright protection system, stringent requirements are placedon a mechanism to ensure the integrity of this system. For this reason,support for content insurance is implemented as part of the copyrightprotection client software.

When consumer 502 makes a claim 32, the list of protected titles, askept by insurer 500, is presented to the consumer for selection.Consumer 502 selects which titles he or she wishes to download and anelectronic voucher is generated that is transmitted to the consumer,content owners or merchants which is redeemed to download the content.

The copyright protection system is introduced with respect to theembodiment in which consumers are able to purchase insurance on theirdigital content at a time after the actual purchase of the digitalcontent, however, it should be noted that use of the copyrightprotection system in other embodiments is within the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

While a specific copyright protection scheme is described, other schemesare envisioned, however, there are a number of requirements forefficiently, securely providing copyrighted content in a policy.

These requirements of the copyright protection scheme are:

-   -   The ability to detect that the content is compliantly protected,        i.e., was legally acquired;    -   A binding between the protected content and an entity        (alternatively, more than one entity) that could be either a        person or business, i.e., the consumer, or a piece of hardware        (hard drive, computer, consumer electronics device, removable        media, etc.);    -   In embodiments in which policy information is not stored at a        central third party, a facility to recover the rights management        system's binding to the original entity even after a complete        loss of data;    -   For embodiments in which the consumer must maintain copies of        the receipts in which they have acquired insurance, e.g., where        the communication between merchant and clearing house at        purchase are alleviated and where insurance purchase is        decoupled from content purchase, the scheme is modified to        provide the capability of generating a digitally signed document        in an agreed upon format listing the content to which the policy        holder has acquired rights.

There are currently several commercially available systems for copyrightprotection, usually called Digital Rights Management Systems or DRMS,that are used for the distribution of licensed content.

Consumers interested in purchasing copyrighted content first download aprogram (the client) to their computer. Subsequently, users may browsefor content at a participating online merchant, pay the purchase pricefor their selection and initiate download of encrypted content.

The content is stored encrypted on the consumer's system, using a keyunique to the specific instance of the client software. This guaranteesthat if the encrypted content were to be transferred to anothercomputer, it would not be usable. This is denoted personalizedencryption, to differentiate it from other techniques that use asystem-wide encryption key or similar schemes to ensure compliance.

A mechanism for recovering an instance of a client should it getcorrupted, erased, or in case of an upgrade or system change isprovided. The exact mechanism is not a part of the present invention,but this feature provides a guarantee that a user's collection ofcontent can be recovered even in the case of total data loss at theclient.

The DRMS client is modified to generate a digitally signed list of thecontent to which the user has been granted a license. This list is aproof of user rights, which is signed using a private key specific tothe client instance. The corresponding public key is verified byappending a digital certificate signed by the root system key.

Using this scheme, when a consumer 502 wishes to create a contentinsurance policy or add content to an existing one, he or she instructsthe client to generate a proof of user rights. This document is then beuploaded 30 to the agent 500, where the signature is verified beforeaccepting the list of titles.

While it is believed the foregoing description is sufficient to enableone of skill in the art to practice the present invention, the followingdescription is given in order to provide a further illustration of theprinciples of the present invention. The following description is madewith regards to the clearing house embodiment and FIGS. 2 a-2 c areutilized in conjunction with FIGS. 6 a-6 d and FIGS. 7 a-7 d during thediscussion.

A consumer 202 directs his or her browser to an online merchant, whichsupports the present invention. If not already installed, consumer 202downloads a free client software which is installed on the PC. Consumer202 browses the titles available and finds and decides to purchaseseveral of the titles 600. Consumer's browser displays the content to bepurchased and gives the option of purchasing content insurance on thetitles selected. Consumer 202 elects to purchase the insurance and acontent insurance flag is set 604. When consumer 202 accepts the order,the merchant's software, having verified the credit card information andtriggered the financial transaction 605, prepares an electronic receipt606 which is digitally signed with the merchant's private key.

This receipt is sent to and received 608 by the client software runningon the consumer's computer and forwarded 609 to the clearing house 206.There, the receipt is examined, after verifying the merchant's signature612 (using the corresponding private key), to determine if contentinsurance was purchased 616 A list of titles is also extracted from thereceipt. As content insurance was purchased, a determination is made asto whether or not an account exists for the consumer 624. If an accountexists the titles are added to the account 630, otherwise an account iscreated 626, 628 and the titles entered into it 630.

The clearing house then generates a voucher. The voucher, digitallysigned by the clearing house, is then sent 620 to the client software,which in turn sends 622 it to a number of content repositories. Forsimplicity's sake, in the present example, the content repositories aremanaged by content owners.

The voucher's signature is verified 634 and upon verification adetermination is made as to whether the content is stored in therepository 638. When it is stored in the repository, it is encrypted soas to only be able to be used with the client instance at the consumer'scomputer, sent to and received by the client 644, 646, 648.

At a later time, consumer 202 decides to upgrade the format of thepurchased content (or recover lost content). Consumer 202 navigates to amerchant which supports the content insurance system. After consumer 202identifies himself to the system by providing name and credit cardinformation, merchant's site initiates a retrieval of the consumer'spolicy 700 by communicating with clearing house 206. Clearing house 206looks for the corresponding policy 614 and when found retrieves consumerinformation and the titles in the policy 716, 718. This information isthen transmitted back to the merchant's system 720 and displayed toconsumer 202. The titles consumer 202 wishes to upgrade or recover areselected from the displayed list of titles in their policy 702. In someembodiments, a charge is made at the time of upgrade or recovery and assuch, a financial transaction 704 would occur at this point betweenconsumer 202 and merchant 200. In embodiments where the charge is notper upgrade or recovery, this step is skipped. An electronic receiptincluding the titles to upgrade/recover and signed by merchant 200 usingthe merchant's private key is then prepared and sent to client software706, 708. The client software then forwards this receipt to clearinghouse 206.

At clearing house 206 the merchant's signature (using the correspondingprivate key) is verified 722 and the titles elected for upgrade recoveryare extracted from the receipt. These titles are compared to those inthe consumer's policy to insure the titles ordered are in the policy.Once verified, clearing house 702 then generates a voucher 728. Thevoucher, digitally signed by clearing house 202, is then sent 730 to theclient software, which in turn sends 732 it to a number of contentrepositories.

The voucher's signature is verified 734 and upon verification adetermination is made as to whether the content is stored in therepository 738. When it is stored in the repository, it is encrypted soas to only be able to be used with the client instance at the consumer'scomputer, sent to and received by the client 742, 744, 746.

The present system provides for numerous economic and value-addedadvantages to the parties in the system. Because the marginal cost ofdistributing content electronically is close to zero, all revenuegenerated would essentially be profit to be distributed among the manyparties that partake in the transaction. If deep discounts can beobtained from the content owners, this service could be offered atsignificant margins, while at the same time adding value to consumers.

The above enhancements for commercial digital content distribution andits described functional elements are implemented in various computingenvironments. For example, the present invention may be implemented on aconventional IBM PC or equivalent, multi-nodal system (e.g. LAN) ornetworking system (e.g. Internet, WWW, wireless web). All programming,lists, content and data related thereto are stored in computer memory,static or dynamic, and may be retrieved by the user in any of:conventional computer storage, display (i.e. CRT) and/or hardcopy (i.e.printed) formats.

CONCLUSION

A system and method has been shown in the above embodiments for theeffective implementation of providing content insurance for distributeddigital content. While various preferred embodiments have been shown anddescribed, it will be understood that there is no intent to limit theinvention by such disclosure, but rather, it is intended to cover allmodifications and alternate constructions falling within the spirit andscope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims. For example,the present invention should not be limited by software/program,computing environment, specific computing hardware, specific encryptionschemes, specific copyright protection systems or specific distributionnetwork. In addition, the specific roles indicated are representative ofthe preferred embodiment and should not limit the scope of theinvention. Various content distribution models can be selected to couplecontent insurance with commercial digital content.

1. A method of providing content insurance for distributed digitalcontent to a consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowingsaid consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a newdigital format or replace said digital content in an original formatupon loss of said digital content, said method comprising: receiving arequest from said consumer to purchase said content insurance on digitaldata representative of specified digital content; storing informationuniquely identifying said consumer and specified digital content forwhich said content insurance is purchased; receiving a request from saidconsumer to retrieve digital data representative of specified digitalcontent; determining if said requested specified digital content is thesame as said specified digital content for which content insurance waspurchased, said determination made utilizing said stored information,and wherein, when said requested specified digital content is the sameas said specified digital content for which said content insurance waspurchased, said consumer is allowed to retrieve said requested digitaldata of specified digital content.
 2. A method of providing contentinsurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digitalcontent, said insurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, toupgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replace saiddigital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content,as per claim 1, wherein said request to purchase said content insuranceis received when said consumer purchases said specified digital content.3. A method of providing content insurance for distributed digitalcontent to a consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowingsaid consumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a newdigital format or replace said digital content in an original formatupon loss of said digital content, as per claim 1, wherein said requestto purchase said content insurance is received at a time different thanwhen said consumer purchases said specified digital content.
 4. A methodof providing content insurance for distributed digital content to aconsumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing said consumer,at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital formator replace said digital content in an original format upon loss of saiddigital content, as per claim 3, said method further comprising:receiving a list of digital content purchased by said consumer, andpreventing said consumer from purchasing insurance on digital contentnot contained within said list.
 5. A method of providing contentinsurance for distributed digital content to a consumer of said digitalcontent, said insurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, toupgrade said digital content to a new digital format or replace saiddigital content in an original format upon loss of said digital content,as per claim 4, wherein said list is generated by client softwarelocated at said consumer.
 6. A method of providing content insurance fordistributed digital content to a consumer of said digital content, saidinsurance allowing said consumer, at a later time, to upgrade saiddigital content to a new digital format or replace said digital contentin an original format upon loss of said digital content, as per claim 5,wherein said client software allows manipulation of purchased digitalcontent encrypted utilizing personalized encryption.
 7. A method ofproviding content insurance for distributed digital content to aconsumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing said consumer,at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a new digital formator replace said digital content in an original format upon loss of saiddigital content, as per claim 3, said method further comprising:generating a voucher for said requested digital data representative ofspecified digital content, said voucher allowing said consumer toretrieve said requested digital data of specified digital content.
 8. Amethod of providing content insurance for distributed digital content toa consumer of said digital content, said insurance allowing saidconsumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a newdigital format or replace said digital content in an original formatupon loss of said digital content, as per claim 1, wherein requesteddigital data representative of specified digital content is in adifferent format than that originally purchased.
 9. An article ofmanufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readablecode embodied thereon which provides content insurance for distributeddigital content to a consumer of said digital content and allowing saidconsumer, at a later time, to upgrade said digital content to a newdigital format or replacing said digital content in an original formatupon loss of said digital content, said computer program codecomprising: computer readable program code receiving a request from saidconsumer to purchase said content insurance on digital datarepresentative of specified digital content; computer readable programcode storing information uniquely identifying said consumer andspecified digital content for which said content insurance is purchased;computer readable program code receiving a request from said consumer toretrieve digital data representative of specified digital content;computer program code determining if said requested digital datarepresentative of specified digital content is said digital data ofspecified digital content for which said content insurance waspurchased, said determination made utilizing said stored information,and computer program code allowing said consumer to retrieve saidrequested digital data of specified digital content when said requesteddigital data representative of specified digital content is said digitaldata of specified digital content for which said content insurance waspurchased.